What is missing from Windows Phone 8? About 20 Xbox games that no longer work.

Yesterday’s delisting of Turn N Run – literally the night before our review went live, and only six days after the game’s release – highlights a large and ongoing problem in the world of Xbox Windows Phone games. Since the debut of Windows Phone 8, incompatibility with the new OS has been discovered among a number of Xbox WP7 titles. Each of these games has been completely delisted from the web version of the Windows Phone Store, and either partially or fully removed from Store searches on actual Windows Phones.

Read on to learn what games have been affected so far, and how Microsoft may be mishandling the Windows Phone 8 incompatibility issues in more ways than one.

Missing games from Windows Phone 8

First, let’s look at the list of Windows Phone 7 games that aren’t compatible with Windows Phone 8. As stated earlier, every single title’s Windows Phone Store page is was offline:

Only partially gone

Follow the store link pages for the above games and you'll encounter this message.

Many of us have been operating under the assumption that these games have been completely pulled from the Windows Phone Store. As it turns out, that’s not quite true. Yes, their webpages on the Store are gone, prompting us to believe the games were taken down as well. But most or all of these games can still be downloaded by searching for them directly from a Windows Phone 7 handset. On WP8 devices, they do not appear in searches.

This method of preventing incompatible software purchases by WP8 users is pretty obviously flawed. As I said, removing the actual webpages makes the games appear to be completely gone. You might guess the reason Microsoft does that is because the Windows Phone Store’s website lacks the ability to differentiate between titles that are compatible with one device and not another. But that’s not the case at all.

The few existing Windows Phone 8-specific games like Angry Birds Star Wars have their own dedicated Store pages, despite the fact that they can’t be used by WP7 handsets. Even before WP8 came along, Nokia games like Mirror’s Edge have been viewable on the Store. They can’t actually be purchased from the website, but at least everyone can tell the games exist at a glance. Clearly Microsoft could opt to use one of these existing solutions for WP7-specific games, if they weren’t trying to sweep their existence under the rug.

Not many gamers will be sad to see bug-laden Contract Killer steer clear of WP8

How this affects developers

We contacted the developers of the semi-delisted games to find out what they knew about their titles’ WP8 incompatibility and Windows Phone Store status. Here’s where things get a bit upsetting. In all but two cases, the developers had not been made aware of their games’ Store pages getting taken down. Of that large group, one developer knew their game was incompatible with WP8 and was already working on a fix, but the partial delisting still came as a surprise to them.

A few anonymous quotes from affected developers:

“WOW! We had no idea about this... we'll have to give MS a shout ourselves, but in the meantime, you might as well ask them yourself too ;)
Yeah, nobody from there gave us any sort of heads up that *I'm* aware of... maybe it's just a temporary issue? Maybe they're phasing out all WP7 only content?”

“Unfortunately, we do not know anything about it, and Microsoft did not alert us. We can only guess that it is indeed associated with Microsoft's attempt to clean away all the apps are not compatible with the WP8.”

“In regards to WP7 games being pulled, I had no idea that was happening. We hadn't heard anything from the guys at Microsoft that handle [the publishing of our game], so we've sent them an email asking for details. I would like to get it back onto the store, but we'll see what our guys at Microsoft say.”

“We had not been notified that this would be pulled. We will investigate and see what we can do.”

Pulling a game’s Store page without notifying the developers may show a lack of courtesy, but that’s not the big issue. The real problem is that because these developers did not know their games don’t work on WP8, they could not begin the process of developing patches to correct those mistakes. Yes, several of them were eager to do so after we gave them the heads up, but that’s really Microsoft’s job as the Windows Phone Store owner, not ours.

Whoever made the decision to partially delist these games without telling the people who made those games seems not to care about whether those games get updated to run on Windows Phone 8 or not. Ouch. Considering the large number of affected games, getting them up and running again should be a priority for both Microsoft and the developers.

Bringing the games back

In most cases, the developers weren’t comfortable discussing the actual technical reasons for their titles’ incompatibility with Windows Phone 8. Generally, the games simply crash at start-up or soon after when launched from a WP8 device. One developer did get a little more detailed, explaining that XNA works differently across WP7 and WP8, despite both platforms relying on ARM processors. This difference in underlying XNA architecture seems to be the main cause of these compatibility issues.

That said, the vast majority of Xbox WP7 games work just fine with WP8. In fact, some hardware-intensive games like Plants vs. Zombies actually load much faster than they ever did on WP7. So the transition to WP8 actually boosts performance at times. I’m also expecting Big Buck Hunter Pro’s nigh-impossible Dove Hunt minigame to work properly when it gets patched with WP8 support.

We asked Microsoft about the incompatibility and partial delistings for this story, and this is what they said:

“The Windows Phone 8 platform was designed to run existing 7x apps, but some may require a degree of optimization given the new hardware and software capabilities. We are encouraging all developers to test their apps with our new SDK to help ensure that apps and games run great and take full advantage of new features. We expect the catalog of existing app titles on new devices to grow steadily over the coming weeks and months.”

Microsoft’s handling of the WP8 incompatibility issues may not be highly encouraging, but the problem will certainly ease up over time as new Xbox WP7 releases fade away in favor of exclusively-WP8 games. Also, some affected WP7 games will simply be patched and return to the Store as normal.

Of the 25 games listed so far, we expect about a third or half of them to get updated for Windows Phone 8 in the coming months. Some of the developers we spoke with have already identified the reasons for incompatibility and started working on fixes. However, several of the older titles will probably remain WP7-exclusive due to their developers’ lack of resources or continued interest in the WP8 platform.

Update log

Update 1:The Oregon Trail is now WP8 compatible, while Shoot 1UP has been partially delisted due to incompatibility.

Update 2: Babel Rising 3D briefly returned to WP8 but it still crashed on launch and was soon pulled. KenKen was partially delisted despite running just fine on WP8.

Reader comments

What is missing from Windows Phone 8? About 20 Xbox games that no longer work.

The only one in that list I own is Tenticles and I don't yet own a Win 8 phone so there is yet time to fix this. Now if the game This Or That wasn't working there would be some bloodshead! That is still my favorite time waster game.

I have Fable Coin Golf, Tentacles, Feed Me Oil, Full House Poker and Shuffle Party. And my WP8 is being delivered this week. I'm sure they'll fix this problem, but this just grinds my gears a little. They should just call all these games rentals since I guess we don't really own any of them... just the license to play them.

So go on the chat support system at Microsoft's Windows Phone site and ask for one :). I asked for refunds for two games I'd bought via my carrier rather than credit card, and apparently there's some issue with refunds made with purchases of that kind. So the rep instead gave me $25 in Xbox Live points :D

you cant play Crimson Dragon on the 920? *facepalm* do I need to go dredge up that quote about them saying that they (Microsoft) would recompile WP7 apps in the background to work with WP8 and developers wouldn't have to do anything? WHAT THA F?!?!?

I don't if this has been mentioned...but MSFTs own Photosynth is absent too. Below is the response I received from the program manager...

"Our WP8 app for Photosynth is in final testing, and will be released to the marketplace in a few weeks. Unfortunately our WP7.5 app will NOT work on WP8, so you will be Photosynth-less until we make our release."

This is madness.
While nobody is gonna cry after Contract Killer is gone, I can't figure out a reason to prevent games like Tentacles or Feed Me Oil from being discovered and purchased by the millions of people using WP7.
Oh, and so much Microsoft's promises, that all WP7 apps would work on WP8.

Why bother ? I am not going to use it again unless my WP8 phone breaks(and I pay for insurance for that). Right now there is a market for it where I can get good money for it so I will sell it now.

Still the fact remains, I upgraded to the newest Verson of Windows Phone, Microsoft said all apps will run on Wp8 but, now we know there are acceptions to that rule, they should refund us money or chaise down the devs to fix the problems with the games.

Not just delete them from the marketplace with out telling the Devs....an email at least should of gone out...No excuse..

OMG is a great game I'd like to plug back in on my Lumia 920. This stuff just shouldn't happen. When I pay for stuff, I expect it to be available and work. Jeez. Windows Mobile was great in respect to I could download something and keep the file archived someplace. No store. As the versions of Windows Mobile were updated, the software apps could be loaded and worked. Easy, simple, reliable.

For Microsoft's poor handling of games, lack of Xbox video support, lack of apps, poor excuse of a music store, and too many other reasons is why I'll be switching back to iPhone or trying out android for the first time, they've really shit the bed on this!

Despite the poor handling of this, I am sticking around. I have watched quite a number of iOS and Android friends have to deal with their respective platforms' dirty little secrets. I don't intended to jump from one frying pan into another.

Why not just dial it to the previous Windows Phone? I truly feel that people like you are Apple seeds just waiting for things like this so you can proclaim to users you will flee like a stinking rat...plaebian. =P

Wow...seriously, I'm kinda happy right now I wasn't given an early upgrade to a WP8 device. I'd miss Dodonpachi Maximum. Not to mention, Tango Video Chat is not available either on WP8. It's a really downer when I try to put some apps on my dad's phone that are cross platform, to find out it isn't available like Tango Video Chat....

What an absolute clusterfuck. It's appalling and absolutely unacceptable that this situation played out the way it did.
At this stage of the game when it's critical that MSFT builds as much positive momentum as possible, it's amazing that someone allowed this to happen. Everything isn't going to be perfect, but there are things that are preventable and this is a prime example of a preventable situation.

It's just a few games. They'll get it fixed in due time. Meanwhile, I'm fairly sure that, somehow, I'll manage through. you figure they rewrote an entire operating system in a short amount of time from the kernel up. So, there were bound to be some hiccups along the way.

Not to mention, no OS is perfect. Which is why it always amuses me when people say MS jacked this up so I'm switching to iOS or Android as if no flaws exist with either of those two. Which makes me wonder if and when they do switch and realize the stuff that's jacked up about the other two will they then switch to Blackberry, or Asha, a feature phone maybe, or back to Windows Phone. Gotta love people. Hah.

I remember WP7 didnt even have a feature to copy and paste text until 7.5 mango. This is why i am waiting until end of next year for WP8. I knew some crap like this would happen. Give them time to fix all this mess up.

These games don't run on WP8 because they use native code. Certain essential games were given native code access because they were a high priority. Also I think they pulled the store page to not upset WP8 users as much.

I was thinking the same thing too. If I was a developer with paid apps I would be monitoring my app listing in the store and would have been testing my apps on a WP8 device. It looks like everyone wants’ be blame Microsoft, what about the developers that appear to be clueless about their own apps.

If Microsoft keeps up treating it's store the way they are, they will never increase adoption among users or developers. It doesn't matter how good the hardware is if there is no software for it. Microsoft needs to get their act straight really fast and treat developers with some respect.

Paul, let me just say kudos for uncovering this rock. Microsoft is mailing it in with WP8 and this is just ONE of the many problems they need public shaming over. Who gives a crap if devices are selling at 4 times the rate they were with WP7, in some ways WP7 owners HAVE IT BETTER and that is just shameful.

things like this make me want to refrain from getting my friends to switch to wp8. i love and preach about this platform, im def a fanboy. but wp8 is def a step backwards from wp7. i might as well use my 920 as a coaster and use my htc titan instead. idk i just wish more games and apps were compatable. microsoft made it seem like it would be a seemless transisition. as soon as i saw reinstaller was broken, i started getting scared.

If a dev publishes a game and a month later doesn't realized its been pulled from the store I think that says something about how much support they're providing. Seriously, it wasn't like WP8 was some kind of secret or surprise.

True... although the FM Tuner is not included in the hardware, so I was expecting that. I do wonder if the OS no longer supports it, or it was just an OEM decision to collectively decide to drop that component.

As I understand that is incorrect. All current (at least the HTC 8X and the Lumia 920), have the hardware for FM radio, they just need software to enable it. Word from Microsoft is that they where not ready with it for the release of the handsets. It could come down in a software update.

I would LOVE for WPcentral to investigate this a little more to know 100% and if MS was going to do anthing about it...

i have been following this for a while now, as I use FM radio a lot during baseball season... and kind of pissed off about MS pulling it so I did research....

This should be expected. You've got games that have broken achievements. I mean broken from day 1 and no patch. So I don't see devs jumping to update now.
What really sucks is you can't transfer game saves/progress from your old phone to your new one. Even though it was said in W8 if you lost your phone with the push of a button your new one would be cloned basically.

Hold up, hold up, wait a second, hold it. Ok, there's something disconnected with this article. I have personally tried searching for several of the referenced games on Windowsphone.com and also came up empty. HOWEVER, when I click on the marketplace app link that takes you directly to the app page, I AM able to see the apps. I am in the US and I do now have a Lumia 920, so when I see the app pages I see a message indicating that the app is not compatible with my version of my phone. It is a gross exaggeration to say that Microsoft is taking app pages down. They still exist and are out there. If app developers don't know about app compatibility with WP8 yet, then I would hope that Microsoft is going to notify developers en mass. Application compatibility issues are to be expected, and we all hope that those apps that are incompatible will be identified and fixed. Assuming that Microsoft is erring on the side of an excellent experience (we can only hope) then I'd rather that the apps that are known to have issues be unavailable. Just imagine the hatemail that would otherwise be spilling all over the internet if the apps were just passed through and were broken. Unlike a carrier blocked upgrade, an app update should be available in due time. Thank you WPCentral for reaching out to the devs because if they didn't know about the incompatibility, they now do.

its sad to know that not all games will be updated since I own about 20 of the 25 mentioned, and I sold my nokia 900 and got a 920... another game that is not even on the windows store anymore for either wp7 nor wp8 is mini squadron... that game I loved....

I think the cause of the issue is that XNA is not "native" to WP8 - for example you cannot develop app for WP8 using XNA, you have to develop it for WP7 and hope it will also work on WP8 (and support for new resolutions is impossible). It looks like XNA compatibility was a very low priority for Microsoft - unless they will pull a rabbit out of the proverbial hat and release a compatibility fix together with reboot fix in December.

I got my 8X a while ago before they pulled all the games. Here are the few that I managed to get:

DoDonPachi - crashes on loading a level
Crimson Dragon - crashes on loading a level
Orbital - works fine! But does look very low-res and pixelated.
Shuffle Party - works fine! The puck seems to fly about a lot more, but I never really played it before so don't know if that is normal behaviour.
Tentacles - occasionally crashes on startup, and the videos just come up with a 'sorry we cant play this file on your phone' error, but the actual game plays fine.

I never understood the articles saying the games were pulled, since they never disappeared from the Store on my Lumia 800, now it's a bit clearer, it's a WP8 thing.
Good thing I decided to wait a couple of months until getting a WP8, tired of being a beta tester, and the Surface phone might be interesting.

That's really only half the story, if you visit the Xbox Live Support page online there is a notice that it is affected as a result of the service being down and they are in the process of fixing it. If there any such issues as these, it is always helpful to check that website for these "notice of service" which list what is or is not currently working. ;)

I used to have an HTC Mozart (1st gen device). I bought an 8x and returned it for this reason.It felt like a downgrade, it was like one step forward and 2 steps back. I could no longer use some of the apps or sync podcasts over the air. It isn't just games, Spotify is gone and some others.
I have now got a Lumia 800 and that feels like a proper upgrade - all my apps work, and the phone is much faster.

Now it just needs 7.8....

Microsoft have messed up here, so much has gone into the Window Phone 8 launch, there are adverts everywhere in London and some great events by Nokia etc, but they have screwed up the OS. They need to engage a lot better with developers, and they need to get some updates out much faster, they are constantly playing catch up. There are still so many missing features that they will never get there at the rate they are moving,

Yes it was rather. But the 8x was also rebooting, and I thought the 800 with 7.8 would tide me over until the next gen of WP8 devices, which hopefully has most of the issues fixed.
The 800 is a bargain, the 8x is quite expensive considering the state of the OS. I can wait a few months, sell the 800 and pick up a cheap 8x or the next gen.

Great article Paul. I am happy to say I don't miss any of the games that got pulled really. I either completed them already or don't think I would enjoy them. I do want the Nokia exclusive ones, so I may just have to pick those up on my old trusty/dusty 900.

Count me among those who think most WP7 titles were crap anyway. Just like retail games, sometimes they get old and fall off the shelf. We should not be surprised if WP7 titles do that. Even XBLA on 360 goes thru things like that. Old games that don't sell go bye bye. No one wants to scroll through 100's of games.

It's surprising to me that so many of these developers didn't even bother to test their games/apps on WP8 to verify whether or not they are compatible. I can understand not constantly checking the store page and Microsoft really should've notified everyone, but I can't imagine why you wouldn't want to give everything a once-over to make sure it's all on the up-and-up. Even if Microsoft were to promise that every single product in the store would be 100% compatible, you should still want to see for yourself.

One, the dev doesn't just get a WP8 handset for free. In most cases, they have to go out and buy it like everybody else.

Two, with very few exceptions the devs couldn't test their games on WP8 handsets until WP8 came out.

Three, even once they've identified the problem, it takes weeks or months for a patch to clear XBL certification. They can't just instantly switch on a fix.

Four, not every WP7 dev is interested in WP8 development. For many of them, WP7 development was a one-time excursion or side project. They may not be as well-informed of WP8 developments and issues as WP enthusiasts or more dedicated developers.

Yeah I was pretty annoyed when I couldn't find Splinter Cell. While I was happy with the performance of my Samsung Focus, this game did suffer from some low frame rates and I was thinking to myself that this game should play awsesome on a WP8 device... then poof the game was gone.

RISK is back as well. Still no signs of Dodonpachi. I guess Cave jumped ship to iOS and never looked back. People should start sending emails to Cave daily until they made this game compatible with WP8.

Until the games I paied for are compatable, I won't upgrade. Heck, Depending on how long it takes, I might just switch to a diffrent OS.
MS made the statement that all applications that run on Windows Phone 7 and 7.5 will run in Windows Phone 8. So far, that seems to be a lie.

I've actually spoken to the developers of Orbital, since that's the game I miss the most, and it seems to me that it would be unlikely that they'll release an update for WP8 due to the time MS requires to test and publish the update.

Nowhere in the body of the article nor the comments does anybody mention Hydro Thunder Go. I'm shocked!

Hydro Thunder Go worked fine on my HTC Arrive w/ WP7/7.5/7.8, but has been sorely absent from my Windows Phone 8.&nbsp; That is, until I installed the WP8.1 developers preview on my Samsung ATIV S Neo.&nbsp; Hydro Thunder Go is listed in the Store as Windows Phone 8.1 compatible, it is good to see it return!

I would link to it, but for some stupid reason this form thinks I'm trying to spam you all.